Editor, Folklorica, Journal of the Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies Association

Board, International Society for Contemporary Legend Research

Board, American Friends of Russian Folklore

Editorial Board

Traditsionnia Kul'tura (journal)

Sibirskii Filologicheskii Zhurnal (journal)

Board Member

Kentucky World Languages Association

Research Interests:

Vernacular Religion

Russian Rituals and Holidays

Verbal semantics

Cognitive Linguistics

Availability

Education

Ph.D., Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia, January 1993
Dissertation title “The Voice-Aspect Relationship of Russian Verbs: A Case Study of Reversible Action and Phasal Verbs”
M.A., Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia, May 1986
B.A., Russian, English and German, James Madison University, summa cum laude, May 1984

My research focuses on identity and folklore in contemporary Russia. My first book, Village Values: Negotiating Identity, Gender and Resistance in Urban Russian Life-Cycle Rituals, was the result of ten years of fieldwork on birth, wedding and funeral customs in Russian cities across the country. My goal was to demonstrate how traditional folk practices and beliefs interacted with both Soviet-era official, institutional policies as well as with non-native practices imported from the west. Of particular concern was how the rituals allowed people to negotiate their social, familial and gender identities through resistance and accommodation to the messages from these varied sources. My current research focuses on the religious revival in post-socialist Russia. I am working on a book tentatively titled Sacred Springs in the GULAG. Believers' interactions with these springs illustrate the complex strands of contemporary Siberian Russian identity. I am exploring the legacy of the USSR and attitudes toward the Soviet past, their role within the community of believers over time, and the memory of GULAG victims and their own parallel role as "victims" in the socialist past and post-socialist present.

“The Holy Spring of Iskitim, Siberia: The Intersection of Folk Religion, Orthodox Doctrine, and Communist Ideals,” American Contributions to the 15th International Congress of Slavists, Minsk, August 2013, David M. Bethea and Christina Y. Bethin, eds. 30-43.

“Saints, Sinners, and Spirits: Women in the Russian Legend Tradition,” The Paths of Folklore: Essays in Honor of Natalie Kononenko, 2012, 127-143.